Food Addiction Counseling
Compulsive over and under eating are both Food Addiction disorders. As such, they represent potentially life-threatening health conditions that can be treated. Most sufferers will attest to the fact that the quality of life is severely diminished when they are behaving compulsively. The physical, emotional, and spiritual consequences can be life diminishing for the victim and his/her loved ones. We believe that diet plans and behavior modification strategies in and of themselves are grossly insufficient. The Leadem Counseling & Consulting Services staff is trained in using the 12 Step approach to Food Addiction to promote recovery at a physical, emotional, and spiritual level.
Eating Disorders Defined
What is an eating disturbance or disorder?
An eating disorder can be life threatening and life diminishing in much the same way that Alcoholism and other addictive disorders injure the body, mind, and spirit of the victims. We must eat to survive. Total abstinence, as we understand it in other addictive disorders, is an impossibility. For those suffering with compulsive overeating, the portion is always too small. The compulsive under-eater fears becoming fat and the compulsive over-eater fears hunger. Both eaters are deprived emotionally and spiritually and view their control over food as the solution.
Who develops eating disturbances and disorders?
Eating disorders are found in all populations, neighborhoods, age brackets, and economic classes. There is no discrimination. They occur in both sexes and while more women might be diagnosed with an eating disorder, it would appear that men are equally susceptible.
Why do people develop eating disturbances and disorders?
There are as many different theories to answer this question as there are flavors of ice cream. The truth is we really do not know why. Science may give us reliable data to explain the development in the years to come but for today we can only theorize. We believe that eating disorders have physical, emotional, and spiritual components that must all be addressed in the course of recovery if the sufferer is to know freedom.
What are the signs of an eating disturbance or disorder?
Some common physical, emotional, and spiritual signs are:
- Significant weight loss or gain
- Menstrual cycle irregularities
- Dental problems (such as loss of enamel)
- Unexplained dizzy or fainting episodes
- Chronic fatigue
- Facial swelling
- Preoccupation or distorted body image
(when overweight seeing self as thin beneath a layer of clothes; when thin seeing fat that others do not see) - Dehydration
- Preoccupation with food
- Eating consumes a great deal of time
- Consumed with calorie counting
- Obsessive fear of eating foods that contain fat
- Lost in a constant dream of “diet cures”
- Overwhelming fear of gaining weight
- Avoiding situations where food is served
- Needing to weigh oneself frequently
- Purging behaviors through the use of: vomiting, laxatives, diuretics, exercise, enemas, starvation
- Loss of hope for gaining control over weight, food, or body
- Social and emotional withdrawal related to body image
- Low self-esteem, agitation, depression, and mood swings associated with weight gain or loss
Food Addiction Counseling Focal Points
Recovery from Food Addiction is a life-long process that will need to address a wide array of physical, emotional, and spiritual issues. Leadem Counseling & Consulting Services offers private and confidential counseling to individuals and families whose lives have been touched by eating disorders. Some of the areas of counseling focus in which our clients have usually expressed interest include:
- Establishing A Plan For Abstinence
- Understanding the 12 Steps As They Apply to Counseling for Eating Disorders
- Practicing The Principles Of Recovery In All Our Affairs
- Developing A Healthy Body Image
- Healing A Troubled Marriage
- Developing Intimate Relationships
- Helping A Loved One Get Help For His/Her Problem
- Fighting Depression
- Understanding that Food is Neither Love Nor The Enemy
- Exploring Spirituality
- Detachment With Love
- Improving Communication
- Working With At-Risk Teens
Food Addiction Treatment Options
Individual Food Addiction Counseling
Individual therapy is designed to provide analysis, direction, and support in a therapeutic relationship whose hallmark feature will be mutual respect and responsibility. We believe that a therapy session should be guided by the needs of the client and treatment plans are designed around the needs the client presents. The frequency of sessions and the duration of the therapy relationship are determined by the client. Our staff has an experiential orientation and a personal working knowledge of the 12 Steps. This combination ensures that sessions will focus on real life problems and solutions with numerous opportunities for clients to practice change outside of the therapy session.
Group Counseling for Food Addiction
Group therapy provides a melting pot of personalities for each of the group’s members to develop skills needed to relate to a diverse population of people. As 12 Step oriented experiential therapists, our staff guides the group process through real life problems. Extensive training in Gestalt Therapy, Psychodrama, and Family Systems Dynamics combined with vast experience in the treatment of Addictive Disorders ensures that our recovering staff will bring a wide breadth and depth of skills to the treatment experience. Groups are generally designed as either closed ended which promotes optimum confidentiality and group cohesiveness since all group members will commit to weekly attendance for a predetermined period of time or as a treatment group that allows rolling admission.
Family Counseling for Food Addiction
Effective family therapy must begin with the bonding of values between therapist and family members. Therapy should never dictate the values to which the family members must subscribe. When the values between therapist and family are incompatible then therapy cannot be successful. Our staff practice 12 Step oriented family therapy from a model that combines theories of natural and logical consequences with the spiritual principles of recovery used by 12 Step Groups. ?In this approach all family members share a responsibility for the upkeep of the family and responsibility for the quality of their respective relationships with other family members. Children are not permitted to disregard their responsibility for family’s well-being simply because they are “kids.” Likewise, parents are not permitted to avoid being held accountable by their children by hiding behind the “because I am the parent and I said so” rule.
Food Addiction Counseling for Couples
The development and maintenance of a rewarding romantic relationship will involve an intense commitment to the 12 Steps and a willingness to address the challenges that each member has brought to the union. Our staff will work to assist the members in resolving immediate conflicts while working to uncover the antecedents to the current difficulty.
Food Addiction Assessment
An assessment to determine if an individual is suffering with Food Addiction should involve a comprehensive investigation into the individual’s developmental relationship with eating as an unhealthy mood-altering behavior. The use of simple screening inventories should be avoided, as it is far too easy for the dependent person to manipulate his/her answers. A comprehensive diagnostic assessment should include the following components:
- Review of past/present medical history
- Review of all previous records related to treatment for addiction substances or food addiction treatment or education
- Review of all records related to psychiatric or other mental health treatment
- Review records or history related to involvement in the criminal justice system
- Extensive interviews with significant others in the substance user’s life
- In-depth review of individual’s historical use of mood-altering substances and the impact on all areas of functioning
- Systematic review of potential symptoms as they relate to the DSM IV TR
Intervention Training in Counseling for Food Addiction
While it is true that the food addicted person is the master of manipulation and a brilliant escape artist, a well-trained team of caring people can get through the wall of “denial” where individual efforts have failed. The following goals are appropriate expectations for an intervention:
- Help the addictive person see the truth about the consequences of his/her use of food as an addictive substance or obsessive behavior and accept help.
- Help the individual team members to develop strategies for living that serve to empower them to make changes in their lives that free them from the web created by addictive disorders.
Food Addiction Counseling Aftercare Support
Our after-care support services are intended to provide therapeutic services to recovering food addicted people and their families who are completing residential treatment and require transition support to stabilize their early recovery efforts. The focus of aftercare support is primarily on bridging the gap to 12 Step Groups and developing a relapse prevention plan. Aftercare can be provided in individual, group, and family settings.
Parent/Child/Sibling Food Addiction Counseling
In many families, recovery from addictive disorders is concentrated on the adult relationships that have been injured. It is unfortunate when parents believe that their children will get well as the adults recover. While it is true that the child living in addiction will enjoy a greater level of safety when his/her parent is in recovery, it is not true that children recover along with their parents. If your children have been forgotten, we can help. These services focus therapeutic support on the following issues:
- Food Addiction Education for School Age Children
- Developing Insight Into the Ways In Which the Children Have Been Impacted By The Disease
- Methods for Explaining Parental Involvement In A 12 Step Program
- Methods for Rebuilding Trust
- Parenting Through the 12-Steps